Oireachtas committee recommends extending voting rights to expats

The Government is being asked to extend voting rights to Irish citizens in other European countries.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs is calling for an Electoral Commission to be set up, to come up with a system to make it workable.

In its report on Voting Rights of Irish Citizens Abroad, the cross-party Committee agreed that Irish emigrants should continue to have a stake in the future of their home country.

The European Commission has previously criticised Ireland for not providing voting rights in national elections for Irish citizens living in other EU Member States.

Ireland's one of only five EU countries that doesn't give votes to its citizens living abroad.

One recommendation for feeling with Irish citizens resident in the North is that MPs for Northern Ireland could be given the right to speak and vote in the Dáil.